


we belong

by Stromesquad



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 17:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14501754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stromesquad/pseuds/Stromesquad
Summary: The problem with having the name William written plain as day on your wrist is that there are a lot of people in the world named William. The other problem is that there are also a lot of people named Zachary and somehow those two names seem to go together an awful lot. So how is Zach supposed to find the right William?





	we belong

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [PuckingRare2018](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/PuckingRare2018) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
> Soulmate Mark AU - ‘Your name is so common I thought I’d never find you because everyone with your name wanted to get to know me’

Zach meets his first William when he's 16, just a few months after his name comes in. This William goes by Billy and is in Zach’s Creative Writing class. He's tall, taller than Zach, but lanky. He has dark floppy hair and wears glasses. He's new to the school and he's really very cute. Zach falls a little bit in love with him on the first day of school. They get paired up for a project and Billy’s name hasn't come in yet. 

“Hi, I’m Zach.” He smiles as he shakes this first William’s hand, proud to show off the name on his arm to this cute boy. It's a little brash, but things have been going Zach's way recently. 

“Hi, I'm Billy,” the boy says, smiling back at Zach. 

They work on their project together and at the end, Billy asks Zach on a date. Zach says yes and he falls in love, blindly, happily, easily. They stay together for two years. Billy breaks up with him not long after graduation. Zach’s heartbroken but he gets the point. He is going to school, playing hockey in Michigan while Billy is going to school in BC. He's not naive enough to think that this can last with that distance and time between them. 

Billy calls Zach when his name comes in half way through their freshman year. The name he gets isn't Zach so it's maybe for the best they ended things when they did. 

Zach dates. He dates a lot of guys named William between his freshman and junior year, some only sticking around for a date or two, some sticking around a couple months but never anything serious until he meets William Jones, who wears the name Zachary on his arm. They accidentally run into each other, literally, on the quad when Zach’s on his way to class. It's early fall and the leaves are just starting to change color. Zach falls as quickly as the leaves and doesn't look back. 

William breaks up with him in November of his first season playing pro hockey. 

“I just don't think you're my Zach,” he says. 

***

Zach’s had his heart crushed twice. He's done. He's been on dates with exactly 27 guys named William with and without his name on their wrist, had serious relationships with two and he's just tired. He's done dating guys named William. He's just done with the whole experience for a while. He just wants to focus on playing the best hockey he can and maybe making the NHL someday. He's got the work ethic. He starts wearing a wrist guard and ignoring the fact that people named William even exist in the world. He puts his head down and works his ass off. He thinks nothing of it when that Swedish kid, William Nylander, Willy, gets recalled to the Marlies.

Hanging out with Willy and Brownie on ‘Line mate dates,’ (Willy's words, not Zach’s) is fun. Willy's kind of funny but Zach doesn't think about it other than that because Willy is a kid and Zach is decidedly not thinking about Williams. 

It’s not so bad, hanging out and playing with Willy. He makes these pretty plays and scores beautiful goals. Zach scores the greasy ones, up in close to the net, battling for it, but Willy, his goals are works of art. Zach maybe falls a little in love with Willy’s hockey but he thinks Brownie is too until Brownie calls him out on it when they’re sitting on Zach’s couch playing video games one afternoon. 

“I think you have a crush on Willy,” Brownie says, out of nowhere. It catches Zach by surprise. 

“I really, really don’t. It’s just his hockey is so great. He makes these pretty plays.” 

“I know. We’re linemates.” Brownie rolls his eyes. Zach sighs. 

“It’s not a thing.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” 

***  
Willy and Zach start hanging out on their own, without Brownie as a buffer, which shouldn’t be unusual because Zach hangs out with Brownie alone all the time. He guesses maybe he was subconsciously avoiding it for a while because Willy is, in fact, a William. He’s glad he stopped though. It’s nice. Willy isn’t just smart on the ice, he’s smart off it and a little sarcastic without being mean. Zach’s glad they’re becoming friends. They do the usual things, play video games, watch some hockey, but they also do other things. They watch weird Swedish films that don’t always have English subtitles and Zach doesn’t always understand but they make Willy smile as he excitedly explains the plot or a weird turn of phrase that exists in Swedish but doesn’t translate to English. Willy’s smile is wide and bright when they watch these movies.

It’s while they’re watching one of these movies and Willy’s smiling that Zach’s stomach twists and… And, oh… There it is. The exact thing Zach has been trying to avoid by not dating guys named William. He’s found what he has very determinedly not been looking for with this William or any other William. Zach swallows it down. He’s not doing this. He doesn’t even know the name on Willy’s wrist. He’s wearing a guard which clearly means he’s not looking and Zach is Not Doing This. He shoves his feelings down and stops hanging out with Willy so much and spends more time with Brownie. 

***  
Hanging out with Brownie more is great until he looks at Zach and says “You’re pining.”

"I'm not pining." 

"You are. And for what it's worth I think he is too." 

"How would you even know?" 

"Well I accidentally heard him telling Kappy that he has feelings for someone whose name he won't say and he keeps looking at you like you're the sun." 

"But he doesn't have my name." Zach sighs heavily.

"You don't know that though." Brownie shrugs. "He's never taken his guard off around us. I think the only person who knows the name is Kappy. And he wouldn't know you have his either you know. You have a guard on too. I didn’t know you had his name." 

"But..."

"You're pining Zach. Do something about it."

It takes Zach two weeks before he has the courage to take his guard off for the first time since joining the Marlies. It's been a year and he hasn't shown anyone. He's pulling on his gear and he hears a soft gasp. He looks up and Willy is staring. His mouth is open in a small ‘o’ shape and his eyes are wide and shining. Zach just takes a moment and looks. He looks at this William who is smart and funny and kind. And he just...it doesn't matter to him if his name is on Willy's wrist anymore. He just wants. And he's willing to try. 

Later on the ice, Willy skates up to him and brushes his gloved hands over Zach's wrist, right over where the name William sits and his wrist tingles.

"We'll talk later?" He asks, eyebrows raised.

Zach just nods. Maybe... maybe this is right. And this has led him where he's supposed to be.

Zach has never showered and gotten dressed as fast as he does after practice. He's standing back in his stall, dressed and rubbing a towel over his wet hair one last time when Willy walks over, water dripping from his hair down his cheek. His guard is off, Zach notices, but his wrist is covered by his sleeve. Zach's heart soars with hope. Maybe... maybe... 

Willy takes his hand and leads him gently down the hall to an empty training room. He flicks on the light and pulls up his sleeve and there it is, ‘Zachary’ written in the same looping script that's on everyone's wrist. 

And maybe... maybe... in all the Williams in the world, maybe he's found the right one. Zach takes Willy's wrist in his hand and slowly brings it up to his wrist and kisses it. 

"I think..." He starts but Willy interrupts him with an actual kiss.

When they break apart, Willy rests his forehead against Zach's and says, "I know."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Lotts, Ash, and Ki for reading over and making edits.


End file.
